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Poll reveals gap in financial confidence of women

EQ Bank to launch national platform, Stnce, to support women in financial confidence

TORONTO, Nov. 29, 2017 /CNW/ - It's 2017, and let's face it, we're still talking about the gender gap. The good news: according to a new poll from EQ Bank, Canada's leading challenger bank and part of Equitable Bank, Canadian women are financially savvy. The bad news? There's a massive gap with the level of confidence in their own financial knowledge.

The survey reveals that, compared to men, Canadian women are significantly less confident about their financial knowledge (31 per cent to 49 per cent) and less satisfied with their financial knowledge (38 per cent to 55 per cent).

Interestingly, there is no direct correlation between women's lack of confidence and their level of financial knowledge. In fact, the study shows that although there is some disparity in financial savviness between Canadian women and men, that gap is not wide at all – on a financial literacy quiz, 60 per cent of women got a high score versus 71 per cent of men.

"We don't have a knowledge issue, we have a confidence issue," says Kim Kukulowicz, Vice President of Residential Sales and Partner Relations, Equitable Bank. "This is a problem. In any life situation, women should be in charge of their financial destiny. And the reality is, many of us will have to manage on our own at some point. So, we need to make sure women are confident enough to take their financial well-being into their own hands, pass on that confidence and knowledge to the next generation, and be financial role models for their kids."

Other interesting survey findings include:

Only a small proportion of women (less than 2 in 10) believe that women and men should have different roles in managing finances in the household.

Women's confidence in day-to-day finances is high and equal to men's; however, in all other areas (planning and budgeting, investments and macro- economic influences) women are less confident than men.

"It is very encouraging to see so little difference between men and women when it comes to their financial literacy," says Kukulowicz. "But, we cannot rest on our laurels. There's a long way to go to empower women to make informed financial choices and take ownership of these more complex issues."

Bridging the Confidence Gap with Stnce

To help bridge the confidence gap, EQ Bank is proud to announce Stnce, a multi-faceted platform aimed at increasing women's confidence related to financial issues.

As the first part of this program, a group of influential Canadian women were brought together to provide their unique perspectives and discuss the future of women and financial literacy in Canada. These advisors include Michele Romanow, tech entrepreneur and CBC Dragon, Kristen Wood, founder of Canada's fastest growing beauty services company The Ten Spot, prominent personal finance expert Rubina Ahmed-Haq and personal finance influencers Jessica Moorhouse and Desirae Odjick.

Starting early 2018, EQ Bank will host a series of public events featuring each of these advisors to address the issues of confidence and financial knowledge with women across Canada.

In addition, EQ Bank will be looking at opportunities and partnerships to further support women with their financial education and confidence.

Visit www.stnce.ca to learn more about the program and sign up for the latest updates.

Survey Methodology Conducted on behalf of EQ Bank by Environics Research Group, the survey was fielded online among a nationally representative sample of 1,125 Canadians. The poll was conducted from October 4 to October 12, 2017 and entailed responses to 52 questions based on financial confidence, knowledge, financial topics of interest and how the respondents like to learn about financial topics. The margin of error for a representative sample of this size is 2.9 per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level.

About Equitable Group Inc. Equitable Group Inc. is a growing Canadian financial services business that operates through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Equitable Bank. Equitable Bank is Canada's ninth largest independent Schedule I bank and offers a diverse suite of residential lending, commercial lending and savings solutions to Canadians. Through its proven branchless approach and customer service focus, Equitable Bank has grown to almost $23 billion of Assets Under Management. EQ Bank, the digital banking arm of Equitable Bank, provides state-of-the-art digital banking services to more than 43,000 Canadians. Equitable Bank employs nearly 600 dedicated professionals across the country, and is a 2017 recipient of Canada's Best Employer Platinum Award, the highest bestowed by AON. For more information about Equitable Bank and its products, please visit EquitableBank.ca.